Living Tabernacles

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

Today is the celebration of the Body and Blood of the Lord, where we reflect on the incredible gift of the Holy Eucharist, the “source and summit” of our faith as Catholics. Each Sunday we gather to encounter Christ in the Word of God and in a special way through the Eucharist, where we become one with Jesus through this great gift. All of us should take time to reflect more deeply on what exactly we are receiving at Mass.
Though some people might only think of the Eucharist as a “Catholic” practice, the roots of the Eucharist that we celebrate are deeply rooted in our Jewish religious heritage. In the Old Testament, a priest-king named Melchizedek offered a sacrifice of bread and wine in honor of Abraham. Moses saved the people of Israel by instituting the Passover sacrifice and meal to preserve them from the angel of death, which led to their release from slavery. In the desert, God provided through Moses bread from Heaven, called “manna” to feed the Israelites when they were starving. Once the temple was established, the atoning sacrifices of thousands of lambs would be carried out on the feast of Yom Kippur and Passover, a sacrificial meal that the people would all participate in with their families. It was there in the temple that the Ark of the Covenant, the tabernacle of the presence of God, abided with His people.
On the night before Jesus died, during a Passover meal with His disciples, He took not a slaughtered lamb, but bread and wine to give to them as his body and blood. We continue to do this each Sunday, and every day that Mass is celebrated, where we ourselves become living tabernacles of the presence of God. Just as God dwelled with His people in the Ark of the Covenant, just as Mary became the dwelling place of God as she carried Him in her womb for nine months, we too become tabernacles of God’s presence on earth. We bring God with us out into the world. That is why our preparation for receiving Communion (especially through Confession and prayer), our worthy and reverent reception of Communion and our time taken for prayer after Communion at the end of Mass are so important. This week our mission is to sign up for a weekly hour of Eucharistic Adoration, or to recommit to our hour if we have signed up in the past. Adoration of the great gift of the Eucharist helps us to grow in our daily encounter with Jesus, and to deepen our identity as the Living Tabernacles of the presence of God, which happens every time we receive Jesus in the Eucharist. Fr. Michael